


Bring Me Back

by jspectra



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M, and a bunch of other characters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-11-15
Updated: 2013-11-19
Packaged: 2018-01-01 15:26:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,651
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1045537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jspectra/pseuds/jspectra
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jean and Armin have been together for a long time, that is, until Armin got himself in an accident and landed in the hospital, resulting in a coma. Jean was overjoyed when Armin finally came to, but he was greeted with even more disappointing news - Armin had lost his memory. Perhaps, if Jean tried hard enough, he would be able to get Armin's memories back, and they could still be together - or would this all be too much for Jean to handle?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Downhill

His heart skipped a beat when the news reached his ears, and his lips quivered as he tried to find the words to say. He could not believe it; the very person he cared for most in his life is probably, most possibly, fighting for his own life in the hospital right now. He just wanted to scream, wanted to plead and beg to the heavens above to make sure he was okay, to pray for his safety, but despite all that, the thought of the worst case scenario continued to nag at him endlessly, haunting him, as the memories of all the times they spent together began to flash through his mind.

" _Sir, are you there_? _Hello_!?" the voice on the other line of the call kept roaring for his attention, but Jean paid it no attention. With shaky hands, he lowered his cell phone and dug it into his pocket, not even considering the fact that he hadn't properly hung up on the other person. Jean didn't want to hear anyone else's voice at that moment; he only wanted to hear _his_ voice, more than anything. But now, right now, he wasn't sure if he would even make it to see his _smile_ again.

With clouded thoughts still racing in his head, Jean quickly ran to the sidewalk and flagged for a cab. He knew his presence there wouldn't make any difference, that he could do nothing to make the situation any better, but he just wanted to be there, to see him, to make sure he was okay, even if this _was_ his last time.

And when Jean arrived, he couldn't explain the feeling he got when he saw it for himself. Perhaps a slight pang of relief to learn that he was okay after all, that nothing major or life-threatening had happened to him. But at the same time, Jean felt like time had stopped for him. There was no way he could rewind it, and there was no way he could fast-forward through. He simply had to wait, which, as most knew, was something he wasn't very good at.

But Jean had no choice.

He gently opened the door to the ward and stepped inside, quietly making his way to the seat beside the patient's bed. There, he saw _him_ ; Armin Arlert, the love of his life, his dearly beloved. His eyes were closed, and his breathing was slow, but his expression was soft, peaceful, as if he was simply asleep in his bed.

Well, technically, he was. He was to be in a deep slumber, for, well. Nobody knew. Not Jean, not even the doctors.

Jean simply had to wait, and he _would_  wait all eternity, just to see those shining, bright blue eyes again.

* * *

 

It'd been three weeks since the incident, and there hadn't been a single day when Jean didn't pay a visit to his lover. Today was no exception; he had already worn his nicest clothes - just like how he would dress when he would go on a date - and was just getting ready to put on his shoes when he received a call. It was his best friend, Marco Bodt.

"Jean?" the voice over the phone called cautiously, and Jean hummed in response. Marco let out a relieved sigh and laughed slightly. "You wouldn't believe what I'm about to say."

"Oh yeah?" Jean arched a brow. "What are you going to say?"

"Armin's awake," Marco replied, and with those couple of words alone, Jean felt his heart skip a beat, the same way it did just three weeks before. "Armin's awake, Jean. Come here and see for yourself."

* * *

 

" _Armin_?" Jean called as he pushed open the door to the ward. His arrival was greeted by not just one pair, but several pairs of eyes. His friends were there; Marco, Eren - much to his dismay - Mikasa, Connie, and Sasha, the whole gang. And all of them smiled and waved as they welcomed him, their eyes shining bright. However, there was only one pair of eyes that wasn't as bright as the others; though they focused on Jean, instead of happiness or relief, the only emotions clearly present in the blue orbs was... Jean pondered, _confusion_?

"Armin?" he called again, this time making his way slowly to the patient in the bed. The patient's eyes followed him until he took his final step, all the while bearing the same, blank, confused look.

"Uh, Jean...," Marco coughed softly to get his friend's attention. "There's something I need to tell you..."

"What is it?" Jean questioned, his tone quick and urgent, but his gaze never once leaving the patient.

Marco hesitated for a while, but after receiving the reassuring nods from his friends, knowing - or hoping - that everything was going to be okay, he took a deep breath, and broke the news to him. "Armin lost his memory."


	2. The Beginning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jean takes the first step into trying to get Armin's memories back, but Armin is bothered by more important things.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gosh I really hate this chapter. It's so slow and uneventful and turned out way longer than what I had planned. I apologise for this lousy excuse for an update and I'll try to make up for it through future chapters ; ;  
> I also apologise for how badly written the first part turned out, though. It was really rushed and I had to cut out a lot of unnecessary stuff!

Jean looked at his friend, wide-eyed and with his mouth agape. For a long time nobody spoke. Did he hear right? Did Marco just...?

"You heard him," Eren said, breaking the silence, as if he'd just read Jean's mind. "Armin... lost his memories." Although Jean and Eren weren't on such good terms with each other, he could very well notice when Eren brought his head down and winced in pain - not in physical pain, but in the pain knowing for a fact that his best friend would never recall the times they spent together in the past.

Likewise, Jean lowered his head as well, and pursed his lips tight in an attempt to prevent himself from crying. He couldn't cry, not here, not now. If he wanted to cry, he could cry alone at home, the only place where he could find solace, the place that housed his emotions, the place that he and Armin would often go to when they ha-

Shit.

While Jean tried to fight back his tears, he didn't fail to raise his head and focus his attention on the blond once again. The blond's gaze remain fixated on him, but this time instead of giving Jean that same, blank look, he was giving him a rather sad one - his eyes a little watery and his lips, quivering, as he pulled onto the bedsheets and tightened his petite hands onto them, rolling them into a fist.

Jean felt his heart sinking when he saw the other's expression. It felt... _awful_. Here he was, just being told that the love of his life had lost all of his memories, and he was trying very hard to cope with that fact, although he couldn't risk crying - and Armin was there, without a clue as to who he really was, and yet he was the one who looked like he was about to break down. He was the one falling into despair, and... he was crying. He was crying for Jean.

Jean hated it whenever Armin did that. He didn't like it when others took pity on him, but, this time, instead of playfully reprimanding the blond like he always did, he let out a soft chuckle.

"What are you crying for?" he asked, the edges of his lips curling to form a sad smirk.

"I'm sorry," the younger replied, and immediately Jean wiped the smirk off his face. What?

"I'm sorry," Armin repeated. "I... I don't... I can't remember who you are, so I..." At this, Armin's lips quivered once more, and he proceeded to sob.

"No- wai- d-don't cry!" Jean pleaded, waving his hands frantically in front of the blond's face. Armin wiped his watery eyes with his sleeve and let out a subtle laugh.

"Sorry," he said again. "I didn't know I was such a crybaby."

Jean lowered his hands, a little appalled upon hearing the other's words. If Armin had forgotten his memories so badly to the point where he couldn't remember his own self, what hope was there left for him? "Marco," he said, turning slowly to his friend who looked at him with an arched brow. "Did the doctors say anything else about his memories? Like, if he's able to get them back?"

Marco pondered. "I'm not entirely sure," he said. "But if we tried to get Armin to remember, he might just get them back."

"Then it's set." Jean turned back to the blond and instinctively grabbed his hands, making the other jump. "I am going to bring your memories back, Armin. Even if it kills me. I am going to make sure you remember every single second you've spent with us, so that in the future, we can think back and laugh about them again, just like how we always do. And we... we'll continue to grow up together and create new memories. I'm going to make sure we do just that."

Armin blinked at Jean, a little confused by his words for he wasn't able to catch up that easily. But once he'd processed them in his head and understood what the other meant, he didn't know why, but his lips slowly curled up at the edges, and soon he found himself beaming. He wasn't sure of what to expect, but all the little blond hoped for was to be constantly surprised, and to get his memories back.

Then he could be with his friends again.

* * *

 

The following day, Jean had tried his best to be prepared for his challenge. He was determined that he was going to bring Armin's memories back, and he wasn't going to back down so soon. Well, he just wasn't like that, especially when it came to his lover. Jean had made his way to the hospital that day with a satchel full of mementos like photo albums, and of course there were the occasional anniversary gifts. When he left his apartment he made a vow to himself that he would accomplish a goal by the end of that day - that is, to get a small portion of Armin's memories back.

"Oh, good morning... Jean," Armin greeted with slight surprise when Jean stepped into the ward. The older teen greeted back and quickly took a seat next to him, while Armin struggled to sit up and put the book he was reading aside at the same time.

"What's that you're reading?" Jean asked, arching his brow curiously as he picked the book up. His brows furrowed when he read the author on the leather cover. "Shakespeare...? I didn't know you read Shakespeare, Armin."

"Neither did I," the blond chuckled, and Jean didn't fail to hide the grin he made in response.

Jean placed the book back on the bedside table, before focusing all of his attention on the younger teen. "Well, then," he began. "I suppose you know what I'm here for today."

Armin nodded. "You're here to help me get some of my memories back." He blinked and looked around slowly, a slight confused expression present on his face, before turning back to Jean. "What about the others?"

"They... They're all busy, so they couldn't make it," Jean replied carefully. Of course, that was a lie; he didn't _really_ know if they were all busy, but he knew the reason why they'd chose not to come today. They probably had the hunch that Jean was going to tell Armin about their being a couple, and, making sure not to intervene in their personal affairs, they had decided not to show up. Jean sighed; he wasn't sure if he was ready to tell Armin about their relationship yet, because honestly - how would anyone feel if he'd just woken up from a coma and learned that he and someone else had been an item for a little over two years? Frankly speaking, Jean was afraid of how Armin was going to react to this, afraid that... Armin would reject him.

"Is something wrong?" Armin asked, tilting his head to express concern. Jean snapped out of his thoughts and quickly let out a nervous laugh.

"It's nothing," he assured him. "I was just wondering how I was going to do this."

"Well, it doesn't really matter," Armin said, letting his vision wander off to the satchel that was now lying on Jean's lap. His sharp eyes caught a glimpse of its contents. "Let's start with one of those photo albums you've got there. That's a good start, don't you think?"

Without any further warning, Armin leaned forward and buried his upper body on Jean's lap. He struggled to dig his hands into the satchel, as his head lightly brushed against Jean's abdomen, and the latter couldn't help but gulp. He could feel his own cheeks heat up as the boy dug deeper and tickled Jean's lower body once again. "Armin!" he yelped, using both his palms to push the blond backward, back into his bed, and Armin could only stare at him with wide eyes.

"Wh-what's wrong?" Armin asked, concerned that he might have hurt the other teen somehow.

"I-it's nothing," Jean muttered, turning to look away in an attempt to hide his flushed cheeks. "I just thought... you shouldn't move around so much, since you are still recovering." He raised his hand and rubbed the back of his neck nervously.

Jean was afraid that Armin wouldn't believe a single word he'd just said, but surprisingly to him, Armin bought his lie, and he watched as the blond obliged to remain still in his bed and waited for Jean to do his work instead. As Jean gulped subtly, he turned to his satchel and easily fished out a photo album; it was a long, rectangular book with a red leather cover. He pushed his seat forward to bring the album closer to Armin, and once they both got a good view of it, Jean proceeded to flip it open and bring themselves to a random page.

Armin's eyes widened in both delight and curiosity as he let his eyes wander to the photographs before him. They must have all been taken within that same year, because everyone looked the same in the photos. Armin let his hand run gently across the photographs as he examined them, one by one - the place it was taken, the people in the photo, their expressions. Armin wanted to see them all. Jean remained silent as Armin continued staring, occasionally browsing through and flipping to another page to see the other ones he'd missed.

Armin chuckled at one point when he found a photograph of him, with... Eren and Mikasa, he recalled. They'd only introduced themselves yesterday, so Armin had a bit of trouble trying to match their names with their faces. In the photo, the trio seemed to be standing in the middle of a bricked path. Oddly enough, it looked like they were standing on the top of a wall. Old and polished cannons were lined up in the background behind the smiling trio, and Armin got curious. Noticing his fixed gaze on the photo, Jean decided to explain to him. "That was an outing you went to with Eren and Mikasa," he said. "You guys visited a memorial site at Trost some time ago. I was dragged along because Trost happened to be my hometown, and you thought I'd be able to show you guys around, but all I ever did was take a bunch of photographs of you three." Jean smiled as he recalled the events that occured on that episode; the long roadtrip, the blazing weather on that day, and all the countless times he had to listen to Armin's historical ramblings. Of course, he'd kept the fact that he was simply dragged along because Armin and Jean were already an item back then, and Armin didn't want Jean to feel left out, so he brought him along.

Armin laughed softly as he listened. "Must have been fun," he muttered, flashing a sad smile. The fact that he had shared such great memories together with his friends, and that he couldn't recall them now, upset him. He let his gaze wander off to another photo to prevent himself from getting sad even further.

"What about this, then?" Armin pointed a slender finger to a portrait photo; it was a photograph of Armin himself, so the background wasn't all that visible, but one could clearly see that Armin was trying to show off some outerwear in that photo. It was rather oversized - or perhaps just large for Armin's petite build - and it was dyed a dark green. Armin could barely make out the embroidery on the cloak, but he saw what he guessed were wings. Again, he got curious.

"You were still at the memorial when that was taken," Jean explained. "They had the Scouting Legion's cloaks available for sale back then. It was a limited edition, and you were so excited when you finally bought one of your own. You went around showing off your cloak like a little kid after that."

Armin grinned. "Do I still have that cloak now?"

"...Yeah," Jean replied, but once again kept the fact that the cloak had been given to him by Armin himself, not too long ago.

Armin took no notice of Jean's quiet demeanour, and continued beaming at the fact that his cloak was still around. He couldn't recall any of that, but still - it was a limited edition! And Armin was pretty damn proud that he'd managed to get a hold of it. With that thought still in mind, Armin proceeded to flip to another page once again, but the moment his fingers shifted, the felt the weight of the book press down on them immediately. He gasped in both pain and shock; the album had been forcefully closed by a much larger hand, and when Armin looked up, he met Jean's stern - or somewhat alarmed gaze.

"Jean...?" Armin croaked, a little confused by the older teen's actions, but Jean simply pushed his hand away gently before taking the photo album back.

"I can't let you see that any more," Jean said plainly, and proceeded to keep the album back in the satchel. He then turned his attention back to Armin's hand, and held it in his own; with his thumb he gently carressed the fingers that had been hurt earlier by the book, and Jean mentally cursed himself for hurting his beloved. "...I'm sorry about your hand."

Armin shook his head. "Don't worry," he said, flashing the other a smile, but the smile quickly disappeared as soon as it came. "Why can't I see the other photographs?"

Jean hesitated for a moment. "They're not of good quality," he lied. "The colours are fading. You can barely make out anything in them."

Armin shrugged, the smile still glued onto his face. "It's no big deal. I could still try and take a look at them."

Jean frowned. "But, I doubt it's anything you'd want to-"

His argument was interrupted when the door to the ward opened, and both the teens instantly turned their attention to the doctor standing in the doorway. She was rather tall and slim, even under the white coat, while her dark hair was tied up into a messy high ponytail. She flashed the boys a rather wide smile as she brought a hand up to fix the rim of her glasses on her face. "Armin Arlert, I presume?"

Armin simply stared at her for a few moments, his mouth agape. "Uh, yeah..."

"Good!" The doctor beamed. "I'm Doctor Hanji, and I've just been told to examine on you today!" She held up a clipboard and scratched her chin with her free hand playfully as she ran her eyes over her documents. "It seems here that I need to run a few more tests on you today." She brought a hand up to the side of her head and knocked it a couple of times. "Something to do with your brain."

Jean didn't fail to notice Armin as he gulped, and slowly, the blond began to pull himself out of the bed. It was obvious that he was reluctant to go, that he was scared, but he didn't have a choice, did he? The doctors would probably sedate him temporarily if he refused, or something like that anyway. He nervously made his way to the doctor, the whole time she was smiling and waiting patiently for him at the doorway.

"Wait!" Jean called, getting to his feet suddenly. "I'll go."

"Oh?" Hanji averted her gaze to him. "And you are?"

"Jean Kirschtein," Jean replied. "I'm his... good friend."

Hanji pouted playfully. "Well, sir, usually we try to play by the rules here... that _only family and close relatives_ can accompany their patients when they're about to attend their appointments, but..." Hanji turned back to Armin, who seemed to be shivering slightly even though he was barely a few inches from the doctor. "Since your little friend here seems far too scared to be left alone, I'll allow you to come with us." The doctor smiled again. "Just this once, though!"

Jean nodded, acknowledging her words, and soon the three of them walked out of the ward and followed the doctor as she led them to her consultation room. Armin and Jean remained close together as they walked briskly behind Hanji, trying to catch up with her pace, and when he thought the doctor wouldn't be able to hear them, Armin whispered, "Jean."

"Hm?" Jean arched a brow at Armin, curious to find that the blond still had the guts to speak to him in a situation like this.

Armin lowered his gaze to the floor for a while, clearly hesitant to speak what was on his mind, but as his gaze wandered back to Jean, he stiffened slightly. Realising that it was already too late and that he couldn't really back out right now, Armin continued, "...What the doctor said earlier got me thinking..."

"What is it?"

"...Where is my family?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, this chapter was rather boring, and I apologise for that! I've already written the next few chapters and hopefully they turned out a lot more interesting than this one. Like I said before, progress in this story is going pretty slowly, but I'll see what I can do to quicken the pace. Thanks to those who took the time to read this!
> 
> Also, updates might come pretty slowly too, since this wouldn't be the only Jean/Armin fic I'll be working on. I'm trying to come up with ideas to participate in Jearmin week that's coming soon. My works will probably only be published on my tumblr though, so you can hit me up on there if you're curious. It's jeanarureruto!  
> Oh, and you're fine to send me prompts as well, not that my ideas or writings are any good, but I'll try my best!
> 
> Once again, I apologise for this pretty crappy update hahaha, and sorry if I've made any mistakes. Thanks for reading!

**Author's Note:**

> This work might probably be a bit slow... but I hope it stays interesting enough for people to keep reading it!  
> It was originally supposed to be in Armin's POV, but I didn't know where to start. Who knows, perhaps in the future chapters, I just might do the whole POV-changing thing. I'll try my best not to make things messy, though.
> 
> Sorry for any mistakes. Thanks a lot for taking the time to read this, and I hope you enjoyed it!


End file.
